Give Early Access Feedback to the Dev Team

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(My apologies in advance, as I'm new to the game, just starting to understand the SubNautica "world" and gameplay.)

I'm filing this post on behalf of my pre-teen daughter. She really likes the concepts, visuals and gameplay aspects from the videos we've seen on Steam.

And then there's the "BUT..."

BUT the main character is... male. This isn't a feminist troll-bait slight; she understands there are budget factors when developing a game, particularly in character design/animation. She wonders if there will be a future option for a female main character.

So many of my suggestions are already out there, so I won't bother repeating them. Here are a few I did not see (maybe overlooked)

- maybe it is just me, but the Seamoth rotation is horribly slow. Perhaps using A and D to rotate rather than strafe. With its current mobility, I simply use it as a portable oxygen supply.

- Base modules for farming, storage, etc.
- Farming module. The idea is to allow a degree of self-sufficiency. Perhaps to make it more difficult the player would need to manually collect specimens and analyze enough of them to 'Unlock' the ability to create a farm for that particular species. (Requires maintenance)
- Alternative would be collector drones who scavenge, and fish for specific resources, I.E. salt (Again perhaps after enough research of the desired resource).
- Storage Module. Allows the use of drones to transport items back to the base. Allows the sorting/stacking of materials. can be upgraded with refrigeration mod to allow the storage of food/water.
-Refinery. Used for the bulk refinement of natural resources into advanced materials.
-Recycler. Used to reduce advance materials into raw materials (At a slight loss of course)
-Docking bay. This has been suggested, but my idea is that if your Cyclops or seamoth is damaged while exploring, you can only patch it together enough to hobble home, but you need a docking bay to get it back to 100%.
-Filtration system. Separates the salt from the water allowing salt to be a renewable resource as well as a way to maintain water supply. (Requires maintenance)

- Head/shoulder lamps (I am sure this MUST have been suggested by now, I just hadn't seen the post). Working at night is a bit difficult when you have to hold a flashlight.

- Storage drone. Craftable drone that allows you to send collected material back to the storage module of your base, so you can continue harvesting. (See base modules above)

-Decoys. used to deter pursuers.

- Oxygen generator. Permanent fixture placed on the sea floor that works like the purple brain coral.

That's all I have for now. I do love the direction of the game and look forward to its development.

P.S. I really like the discovery system when I bring a new fish onboard and unlock a new recipe. I think more of the game should be this way. I.E. Haven't a clue that copper wire exists until I bring my first copper to the analyzer.

Hiya devs, I've only recently got the game (two days ago), and I'm absolutely loving it so far. While I was diving in the mushroom forest biome, getting oxygen from a purple coral, an Idea occured to me: Oxygen dive tubes. They would work much the same way that the dive reels do, but instead of connecting an anchor to a stone, you connect one end to a ship (E.G. the cyclops/seamoth), and you then can swim around without draining oxygen from your tanks, but instead draining the power of the sub, as if you were in it.

Another idea thats directly related: an inflatable dive-bell: a teporary structure thats crafted from silicone and titaium (for weights), and is deployed somewhere where other oxygen means are unviable (say in a cave 200m underwater), and then linked via the oxygen dive tube to a sub to provide oxygen to it, allowing the creation of a hub for extended cave diving, without the commitment of a perminant base. When the dive was over, the player could then grab the tube connector again, and pick up the dive-bell just like a beacon, to allow relocation.

Ah, another idea: a type of torch that you can mount onto solid objects to provide a fixed light-source (for the afore mentioned cave exploring base). It would be identical to the torch in every other aspect, except it has to be mounted in order to function.

Hiya devs, I've only recently got the game (two days ago), and I'm absolutely loving it so far. While I was diving in the mushroom forest biome, getting oxygen from a purple coral, an Idea occurred to me: Oxygen dive tubes. They would work much the same way that the dive reels do, but instead of connecting an anchor to a stone, you connect one end to a ship (E.G. the cyclops/seamoth), and you then can swim around without draining oxygen from your tanks, but instead draining the power of the sub, as if you were in it.

Letting us connect the air tubes to the ship would also work just as well I think until such time as they implement some kind of hose system.
Just increasing the default "no air tanks equipped" timer to 5 minutes would also be handy. As it is I am finding having to surface every 2-3 minutes for more air (or sacrifice the majority of my inventory to air tanks) does become tedious and makes exploring some of the more interesting deep water areas a lot less fun than they'd otherwise be.

I just wanted to suggest that there should be an option in the fabricator, when you make titanium from scrap metal, to do "all available" and not just hammer the fabricator over and over and over again.

Also, it would be pretty neat to have some kind of storage unit in your base that connects to the fabricator, so it looks at that inventory (hopefully, a little bigger than your personal inventory) and makes stuff from there. Like the locker, but with a pipe.

i still think the game needs to be darker- currently you have to dive hundreds of meters before it gets a little dark.

i think its huge lost potential to have everything so bright. i guess the devs want that the player can see their wonderful handcrafted terrain.
but i really think that such far visibilty is the wrong way to go in an under-watergame.

imo i would be so much more exciting if the player needed to use a light source after a certain depth. lets say after 100 meters. its also not realistic but i would agree that the shallows should remain illuminated.

life on earth is expensive but every year you get a free trip around the sun.

Hello!
Im loving this game right now, and im sure that it will have a bright future if you, the devs keep your amazing dedication up! Here are couple things you could/should focus on. Firstly, before adding more submarines, equipment and so on, i would like to see more biomes and fauna in the dephts of the ocean. More deep parts of the sea would be also nice to explore. That feeling when you dive to the most deepest places whit creepy music on, oh so satisfying! . Of couse, when we get deeper, things get bigger and wierder. Good examples are the sea emperor and the cave thing (W.I.P?). After more fauna and biomes are added, just some map expanding would be nice and more equipment! Keep up the great work devs!!

I have a minor thing to suggest, something I've never had issues with in other games before.

The movement for the Seamoth, if it could be tweaked or some option to make it turn smoother? As it is right now every time I turn even a little in the shit I quickly get a headache or motion sickness. This is something I've never had happen before in any game and often chuckled at others who would request this. Now I see how it feels ;w;

I seem to be unable to send feedback by pressing F8. I have restarted my Game and pc multiple times, but I just keep getting a really vague error (something went wrong, are you connected to the internet? If so, please tell us about this on the forums) or something like that ._.

The issue that I was trying to report but couldn't was pretty minor - Sometimes, rock chunks one can break to get ores are not correctly placed and end up half floating (and invisible, since I can see right through the back). Also, whenever i'm in the water but swimming at the surface the water surface texture goes completely bonkers in that it starts flying around and messing up the beautiful scenery! This is something that always seems to be the case, it's not incidental .-. Besides that, this game is amazing, especially for early acces. My computer can't really run it all that well but even at the 20-30 fps i'm playing at, its thoroughly enjoyable (and horrifying, that big instant kill freaky mouth thing really makes me feel like i'm playing some kind of underwater horror survival game, good job on that one)

-i think more vehicles to give us multiple options to try instead of 1 ship 2 ship base (3 different sea moth types one speed, one diving, one with arms for collection) depending on use etc boat with a diving bell, lowers down with you inside then you can grab air without having to burn up to surface good for a starter before all existing subs. or a bell on cyclops giving a purpose for the lower level of the ship (it can only dive down to 200m or so then drop bell to get lower air pocket to recover air or hung near a cave entrance to regain air if needed) i think storage small or not on other vehicles aswell, and equiptment lockers in cyclops lower level where you had the open locker door make em useable for diving equipt. E.G rifles, torch, tools.

-more weapons (non lethal as i feel lethal will kill the danger factor and ruin the current exploration feel it has) electoprod short stun pole, spear gun or net launcher for catching fish, a decoy launcher for setting off the pods that shoot kamikaze fish, or throwing seekers off on a wild goose chase so you can swoop in to get those teeth. maybe a way to farm fish (encatchment area) to store fish, (still have to catch them alive put in encatchment zone you have built. also having to keep fish alive by keeping food supplied coral or weeds whatever they eat.

-once base built (considering you are a colinising alien here to colinise. the planet) setting up of a machine that vibrates or pulses materials up to sea floor (way to make, re-spawning quartz silver etc so you have an endless supply, slowly and i mean slowly returning to where you find em (still have to go find a collect. but stuff will re-spawn between 5-10 day cycles ingame, all you have to do is survive till then for that copper to build more cells. even have these machine needing placment in areas of effect and maintained (use for welder) scrap metal for patching

-last but i feel most important more lifeforms/ population, bigger map

1. The inability to recharge the Seamoth without the Cyclops.
At the start, you have the Moth when you can gather the resources to make it. This is a useful tool for getting about but the inability to recharge it makes it limited too much. It needs some sort of mobile recharger, even if it means sitting idle for a while until it's charged up enough. A power pack would suffice but it needs to be consumed by the recharging process.

2. Too easy to reach end-game.
The Cyclops is the ultimate sub at this present time but with only a few resources, you can fabricate it. This should be a long and drawn out process of making it in parts and fixing them together rather than grabbing a few ingots and making it in one hit. If a big ship is introduced later (maybe even big enough to dock the Cyclops in), I'd hope that it requires hours of work to make piece by piece and cost a shedload of resources for each part. Maybe first having to fabricate a dry dock to build it in which can only be fabricated on the shores of one of the islands.

3. No defence against big creatures and some small ones.
Bleeders are a curse and come from nowhere to attack, the first you know they are there is when they latch on. Other big creatures, we have no defence against at all. I'd like to see deterrents either physical or chemical to combat these problems such as a rub on repellent, (wears off in time, 20 minutes for example), to deter bleeders and maybe a Gasopod type defence against the larger stuff.

4. Small map.
Really, the map is tiny. If you compare the game to another underwater survival game (Farsky), the map on that was huge even if the game itself wasn't really finished since there was much more scope for the game. I just hope that this game picks up where Farsky left off and builds much more on it. However, the map needs to be made a lot larger to make it time consuming to explore.

5. Small bases.
This is a major issue to me. I like space to move around and don't like the feeling of claustrophobia. The tube like base sections seem more like connecting tunnels rather than a base at present and I hope that much bigger spaces are brought into the game for living quarters, a kitchen, labs etc. I mean places that take more than 3 steps to traverse.

6. Modding.
Most games that have been successful have had modding capability. Farming Simulator, Skyrim and many more. Devs often do what they want and not so much what the players want. It's also down to costs and on a limited budget, continuing to develop a game that is no longer generating revenue is not particularly good business sense. Allowing modding allows the players and the modding community to pick up where the devs left off. This can often generate more revenue overall because the game can be modded to suit the player, ultimately, more players will buy it if there are a lot of mods for it. For a small and up-coming games developer, this extra revenue can mean the difference between remaining in the Indie market and standing tall next to the big guys.

@Tryst
1. You can change the power cell at the back of the seamoth after it's power is depleted.
2. That's abolutely true, but this game is still in early access, so we'll get a lot more content.
3. Propulsion cannon will come to the main game fairly soon. That'll do as a defence mechanism for a while.
4. Agreed. The map is hand-made, so it'll take a long time to enlarge it. It'll get bigger eventually.
5. Glass hallways, docking station (moon pool) and bigger rooms are in development.
6. Just wait for the full release first.

@Tryst
1. You can change the power cell at the back of the seamoth after it's power is depleted.

Apologies, didn't realise that but then again, I had no normal reason to go around the back of the Seamoth.

As for room size, it one of the things I did like about Farsky, you could build the rooms as large as you wanted. I am also playing another Alpha release called Take On Mars which includes base building and that is quite well done. Allowing you to build the base from small building blocks welded together which means large bases are very time consuming to make but also completely personalised. If we could merge two or more adjacent tubes together to make one larger room, that would have a similar personalised effect instead of small tubed corridors and pre-designed rooms.

Same basic principle. Scavenge the 'Aurora' for parts, build a spaceworthy vessel, return to Alterra Corp and warn them to stay well clear of the planet in future.

That's one hell of a job already.

This decision (and rather satisfying end-game outcome) would be born of a crucial meeting with the sentient species that shot 'Aurora' down in the first place.
They were fully aware of the Aurora's original (terraforming) purpose, and felt that it was necessary to preserve the planet's unique ecosystems at all costs.

It should be added that while they don't exactly regret this course of action, they are willing to allow the Survivor to return home bearing the Sentients' message:

DO NOT RETURN HERE. YOU WILL BE DESTROYED.

The trigger for this sequence of events occurs when the Survivor discovers the wreckage of an earlier Alterra survey mission in a particularly hazardous area.
A Sea Emperor is guarding the wreckage, attended by several Reaper Leviathans. Somehow, the Survivor must make contact with the Sea Emperor in order to escape.

This is where all previous research on marine exobiology, navigation & mapping, underwater acoustic communication and defensive weapons comes into play.

@Bugzapper have you seen my suggestion about the story improvements? they kind of goes in the same direction I'd love to hear your take on these, especially the suggestions regarding sentient beings and communication.

There are so many great ideas for this game, I'm really excited about where it will go and what it will become!

I would really like to see exploration combined with an intriguing story to follow. The aurora and the "mission" to prepare the world for colonization sound like two good starting points for this. Who knows, maybe there even is intelligent life somewhere in the depths?

Another Idea in the trello board stands out for me, because it feels fresh and very interesting from a gameplay point of view:
An environment in which your actions influence the oecology and change the world around you.

I believe a smart move now would be to focus on the usability of different creatures as a research object and as a resource. I guess this is kinda what the devs are doing with the DNA thingy and such. In a way "upgrading" and expanding aspects of the current creatures in this fashion would create a wider template on which to create more creatures later in the development.

The creatures now are really well made and I would just love to do some research on them.

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

i still think the game needs to be darker- currently you have to dive hundreds of meters before it gets a little dark.

i think its huge lost potential to have everything so bright. i guess the devs want that the player can see their wonderful handcrafted terrain.
but i really think that such far visibilty is the wrong way to go in an under-watergame.

imo i would be so much more exciting if the player needed to use a light source after a certain depth. lets say after 100 meters. its also not realistic but i would agree that the shallows should remain illuminated.

I think the light should stay how it is now, but with dark drop offs and cliffs. Also, some kind of lighting apparatus would be great.

hi. wsap i can only say that the game is awesom the only 2 problems i have right now are in resources. i cant find lithium and i cant even toggle the console on. so i can cheat or what ever .cuz every time i try to click the check on the "disable console" thing to uncheck it, it dosen't click and it takes me back to the game (im in the pause screan offcource ) iv read on the wiki that i should press f8 to enable the <mouse> but every time i press f8 it says to check that i have an internet connection even though i do .it also says to inform you guys here so i did .plz help cuz i realy cant even continue playing like this. cuz it makes a great game like this suck.

A intro movie showing you crash and maybe the pod ejecting. Sure this is probably already in the works.

II. Initial starting:

Pod/shallows:

1. Damage to pod should mean something. Make power cells drain slowly until the damage is repaired. On-board computer girl, should warn player that the power cells are draining due to damage.

2. First aid box, should have at least one first aid in it..

3. Storage container should just be very random basic stuff. Knife and camera perhaps is the best you get, rest be food ration and a little water. Give the players time to discover new food and water resources.

4. Camera can be used to identify new creatures or keep it as is and have your on board computer do it, I like the camera idea of taking still photos for a library of sorts..

5. The shallows need more variety of schools of fish and reef animals, but this leads to my feedback on spawning later in the doc. This bio needs to be bigger and I am sure you guys will be making much larger. This bio should get you base tier 1 tech material and very little type 2.. This way they can just get enough to make something to naturally progress through the tech tree. Basically using resources and other indicators to naturally make players to want and need to explore further and deeper out.

6. The other idicators of your status is good at helping you decide what you need to do, we need more though. Health helps with food, dehydration water, oxygen air, heat for heat, we need a pressure indicator as well. If you go to deep perhaps you vision blurs then if you do not mind the warnings you black out, causing you to have to rise or die. This also helps players decide they need a tech or vehicle to go deeper.

7. Once you have implemented currents and weather, give the pod a anchor of some sort.. I like that you can move it currently, that is good. I parked mine by a resourceful reef.

8. If you kill a fish or other animal maybe we can get parts from it, tooth, bone , piece of meat.

Steam will not let me play Subnautica as it is only playable on 64-bit windows while I only have 32-bit. I mean, I've paid for it (20 €) but Steam didn't warn me or anything. The main reason I wanted to pay Subnautica as an early access game it to contribute to the community and give feedback to try to improve the game for when it finally will be "released" as a full game.

I therefore call to anybody who can play Subnautica to try to give some of the following ideas as feedback (I believe you need to press f8 while playing to report bugs and give feedback) ; Those in bold should be given maximum priority :

- create the possibility to build bases on the backs of reefbacks

- create swimming beacons

- create beacons that can attach on solid surfaces

- make creatures of a same species differ in size because they all just seem like clones

- create land-living animals, or animals that live both on land and in the sea

- create flying animals just like in the trailer

- create the possibility to actually see the map of the Subautica world in the game, so that you know where you're going

- name the planet you're on

- name each different biome on the map

- whenever you enter a new biome, make it obvious that you're doing so, like say so or play a different music for each different biome

- create actual deep-sea animals

- create the existence of certain diseases and antidotes (do not make these diseases aggressive, though)

- create the possibility to have more than just one saved game in the menu

- create a sort of jet ski

There you are, that was a first bunch of ideas for feedback. If you like them, then please use them as feedback for the game (I can't, remember). I also invite people to give comments about these ideas, and especially to give more ideas as feedback. Have fun playin', but hurry up with those feedback ideas : Subnautica will be fully released by the end of 2015.

Many of these things are already features! And the Trello page allows you to access their WIP's to see what else they are adding.

-There are "land-living" Cave Crawlers aboard the Aurora, and I am certain more are on their way.-Many tropical birds can be heard on the Islands Biome. They are planning to implement actual wild-life eventually. -There are SEVERAL new creatures, large and small, being worked on and tested daily. -You can currently have more than one saved game in the menu (source: I currently have 2; one survival, one testing).-The Seamoth can be driven on the surface just as easily, and if I am not mistaken, it actually travels even faster on the surface? The Seaglide and Powerglide also act as less clunky vehicles to zip around the map with.

Bases on Reefbacks seems a little silly, eh? Though from concept art, they might add isolated, unique ecosystems on the animal itself

Beacon flexibility would be incredible. I do not understand what you mean by "swimming beacon," but I do agree that being able to "attach" them in some manner would be immensely convenient! I also would love some system to measure distance TO the beacon; to know how many meters away you are.

Creature diversity has been brought up before, and please continue doing so! Different color/ pattern/ size variations would be much enjoyed for the biodiversity of the map!

Some aeronautical species would be also superbly interesting! Perhaps even some that can both swim AND fly? (Similar to diving birds on Earth)

A map system has also been discussed many times too. I personally would love some mapping system, but I don't want a map that makes it TOO easy. I still want that feeling of survival and exploration.

A unique DNA system is currently in the works, but diseases might be complicated to players. The radiation is on a similar path, but it WOULD be interesting to see in what way a "sick" mechanic could be implemented. Maybe not bacteria per say, but perhaps toxic fauna or flora that would need proper ingredients to treat?

- to me, there seems to be too many living animals; I think it would be amazing if somewhere, the skeleton of a really massive ancient animal could be found and used to find various raw materials found nowhere else
- the flashlight needs to be upgraded as it is far from powerful
- make the weather vary, because it's just so boring that the sea stays steady as a rock and the sun keeps coming up and down with no clouds at all
- add a clock so as to keep track of time passing by
- create a sort of encyclopaedia of all tha marine life which is consultable in the game, BUT if the player wants to see an entry on a marine life form, he/she MUST have encountered it first
- make the terraformer work at any depth (for jacksepticeye : https://youtube.com/watch?v=RgsedxQzRds )
- the swim charge fins should also be able to charge he sea glide (again, for jacksepticeye : https://youtube.com/watch?v=JeSMoB8B9yo )

I think it'd be cool if the player could create with the builder a sort of a shark cage which just stays in mid-water and in which the player can enter to escape and observe a hostile life form. The cage isn't transportable, and can therefore be left at a biome where a dangerous animal is found (stalkers are found in some creepvine forests, sand sharks are found in the grassy plateaus, bone sharks are found in some mushroom forests...). For air to be accessible in the cage, the player can simply install some tubes from the surface.

I can't remember who asked this, but someone wanted these wierd things to be in the game : I don't know where they originally come from or what their name is, but they do seem cool, and wierd enough to look alien. I rather feel that they could be some sort of scavenger swarming around the sunken skeleton of a really ancient and massive animal (see my second bunch of ideas)

Many people didn't like my idea that the map of the Subnautica world should be seen by the player, stating that this will make travelling too easy. Well, I've had an idea : this is the same principle of my idea of a consultable encyclopaedia (see my second bunch of ideas), meaning that if the player wants to know the directions to some area, he/she must've already been there (the undiscovered areas on the map are blurred out)